Beware of get-fit-quick ads

Cardiovascular training is great for your heart and lungs, and for controlling your body weight.

Photograph by: File photo
, Postmedia News

MONTREAL - Fitness equipment manufacturers know that January is the best month of the year to sell their wares, which is why TV, radio, newspapers and the Internet are filled with ads hawking the latest exercise gadgets.

Yet, despite myriad fitness gizmos on the market, most sales pitches follow one main theme – the promise of quick and easy results.

The problem is most fitness results are neither quick nor easy. That doesn’t mean that exercise equipment isn’t a good investment. It is.

What it does mean is that there are plenty of products out there that overstate their benefits in the hopes that consumers will buy their pitch of big results in little time.

To help you sort through the promises of slimmer thighs, a tighter butt and a whittled-down waistline, here are some tips on how to interpret the fine, and not so fine, print used to sell fitness equipment.

Get ripped quick

As tempting as it is to believe that you can get fit in four, six, eight or 10 minutes a day, there is no compelling proof that fitness can be significantly improved by performing so little exercise. And while there is research suggesting that multiple short bouts of high intensity exercise can improve aerobic power, you do so at the expense of aerobic endurance and weight loss.

It’s also worth noting that the average exerciser can’t sustain the kind of intensity needed to benefit from short-duration workouts, so don’t get tempted by results that were reportedly obtained by working out at an intensity that is well outside your own comfort zone.

My machine is better than yours

The truth is, it’s not the machine that makes a difference, it’s you. So regardless of the sales pitch, the most effective exercise machine is one that you’ll actually use.

That said, most exercise physiologists suggest that a treadmill provides the greatest potential to burn the greatest number of calories in a given time period. That’s because it engages the majority of the body’s largest muscles while allowing the intensity of training to be dialed up to an impressive level.

That doesn’t mean that all other exercise machines aren’t worthy of consideration – far from it. There are lots of good quality pieces of equipment that offer a great workout. Just don’t get sucked into believing that some machines offer twice the calorie burn of a treadmill, especially if you see that it targets primarily the smaller muscles of the body and that there is little ability to increase workout intensity.

Burn, baby, burn

Lots of fitness machine manufacturers claim that their product enhances fat burning (either during or post exercise). But that’s not what’s important. The number to keep your eye on when it comes to weight loss is the total number of calories burned per workout, not whether it comes from fat, carbohydrates or protein.

Also worthy of note is that the stated calorie burn on exercise machines is notoriously inaccurate. In fact, years ago a fitness machine manufacturer was fined for artificially inflating the stated calorie burn on their machines. And since the calorie burn equation is based on body weight (the larger the body, the more calories it burns while moving), you must enter your weight into the machine (don’t worry, machines don’t judge) to get the most accurate assessment of how many calories you’re burning while exercising.

Lose those love handles (or not)

Whether the promise is to build rock-hard abs or trim inches from your hips, no machine, exercise or workout routine can spot reduce. Sure, some pieces of exercise equipment are designed to target specific muscles, but that doesn’t mean that the fat located on top of those muscles will magically melt away – no matter how hard you work.

Inches are lost only when the calories burned exceed the calories consumed. And that weight loss is from all over the body, not one specific spot.

As for how long it takes to notice lost inches, it varies considerably between individuals. But suffice it to say that it’s not overnight. In fact, it takes several weeks of hard work before most people notice a change in how their clothes fit or how they look in the mirror.

What about those success stories fitness machine manufacturers love to use as an example of their gadget’s potential? You know the ones where the guy or gal boasts about how much weight he/she lost while exposing an enviable waistline with a matching set of enviable abs?

Chances are that results of this type are atypical and were achieved in combination with a low-calorie diet (check the fine print, which usually makes a similar statement) and lots and lots of exercise – and not all done while using that specific product.

Besides, any fitness gadget that got rid of excess inches in only minutes a day would cost a lot more than four easy payments of $9.99. So be skeptical of too-good-to-be-true promises and invest your time and money in quality fitness products that have proven benefits.

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